Chipmunks eating, planting and stockpiling

Squirrels and chipmunks both stockpile acorns, but it matters whether the acorns fell from a white oak or a red oak. The acorns dropped by white oaks sprout soon after landing on the ground, but the acorns of the red oak lie dormant all winter and sprout in the spring. Since the sprout consumes the energy that was stored in the acorn, rapid sprouting makes the acorns of the white oak a poor choice for stockpiling. So squirrels and chipmunks typically eat the acorns produced by white oak as soon as they fall, and they stockpile the acorns of the red oak since they’ll last till spring. However periodically white oaks have a mast year in which they produce an unusually large number of acorns. In mast years both squirrels and chipmunks would like to be able to set aside some of these extraordinarily abundant acorns. So they have a clever way of preserving them over the winter. They remove the portion of the acorn from which the sprout would emerge, or if it’s already present, they just remove the sprout. Once the sprout is gone, even white oak acorns can be stockpiled.

Eastern chipmunk (Tamias striatus)

In the short video below, a chipmunk shows how to stockpile sprouted acorns by removing the sprout.

The bird feeder in my backyard attracts both squirrels and chipmunks. At one point I switched over to safflower seeds to discourage their presence. But it turns out that the squirrels and chipmunks (at least the ones in my yard) love safflower seeds. They can’t get enough of them. But then one summer I began to find safflower plants sprouting in the mulch all around the foundation of my house. Even though my bird feeder is in the backyard, the sprouts were even showing up in the front of my house. I was convinced that squirrels were responsible for this until I watched a chipmunk “planting” safflower seeds in my mulch. Since the chipmunk was doing his planting in the summer, it wasn’t taking long for the seeds to sprout. It was almost like he was a little farmer doing what he could to insure a bumper crop of safflower seeds to be harvested in the fall.

Sadly this squirrel was unable to read the label Sprouted safflower seeds that I pulled out of my mulch

Besides eating nuts and seeds, chipmunks also eat fruit. For that matter, chipmunks are opportunistic omnivores and will happily scarf down bird eggs, worms, bugs, and even small frogs.

Chipmunks also eat certain fungi, such as truffles. In fact truffles are unable to disperse their own spores, so they depend on chipmunks and other truffle-loving mammals to disperse their spores for them. Chipmunks do this much in the same way the chipmunks in my yard were growing safflower plants all over the place.

In the photo below, you can see that the dove is towering above the little chipmunk. What a tiny, little creature it is.

Big dove, little chipmunk

Chipmunks use their cheek pouches like shopping bags. Once they’ve stuffed their cheeks, they usually scamper back home to stash their goods. I’ve often seen them have so many nuts or seeds in their mouths that their mouths can’t close completely.

Cheek-stuffing in progressEastern chipmunk with the “mumps”

Despite being garden pests, I have to admit they’re cute. I’ll close with a couple more photos.

17 thoughts on “Chipmunks eating, planting and stockpiling”

Thanks, marviiilous. Chipmunks are so small it’s possible that you missed them. However they tend to dig holes, and I suspect that you would have noticed the holes even if you didn’t see them yourself.

I know they do some damage but they are so cute and they are only trying to survive like every one else, lol. I have tons around here, they dont seem to bother my tomatoes, green beans, garlic or peppers. once one got into a bucket full of water and couldnt get out when I found him I felt bad he had to die like that poor thing. so I make sure no bucket remains upright so it can’t catch the rainfall.

Too bad about your bucket. I’m glad that they seem to leave your garden alone. I’ve been told that people who plant flowers with bulbs are often troubled with them chewing up the bulbs, plus the tend to did holes in their gardens.

Thanks, FeyGirl (and I finally got around to looking up what “Fey” meant in the dictionary. :)). Apparently I am feeding chipmunks via my bird feeder, and other critters. I have a few photos of an opossum checking out the seeds at the base of the feeder, too.

I care for a few abandoned kitties in our neighborhood, with some other souls (as well as feeding the birds, of course), and last night I saw an opossum and a happy raccoon family — momma, poppa, and baby!

Subscribe by Email

Follow TrekOhio!

Welcome New Visitors!

TrekOhio’s Regional Guide to Parks lists over 900 parks, nature preserves and trails in Ohio. Using the menu near the top of the page, select a region, then a county. Or go there directly by typing the county’s name after trekohio.com/, for example, https://trekohio.com/hocking

TrekOhio’s Reviews provide an alphabetical listing of all the parks for which we’ve published illustrated articles. These articles describe what our experience was like when we visited the park. Note that the publication date is listed near the top of the article. It is possible that renovations or other changes have occurred since the article was posted. Be sure to check the site’s official page for the latest updates.

Seasonal Events

Buckeye TrailFest — May 16 – May 19, 2019 at Camp Widewater On The Maumee And Miami And Erie Canal; the festival commemorates the 60th anniversary of the Buckeye Trail, a 1,400-mile trail system in Ohio.